Summary part 8

Part 8 marks the end of Sex Lives of Cannibals, therefore it sums up Troost's thoughts of Tarawa and main points of the book for the reader. Troost starts editing papers for the foreign aid industry where he realizes that a person needs to be on a South Pacific island to realize how separated the civilians are from outside cultures, as he found out statistics of outside aid to other diseases rather than the aid for the main killers of developing countries. This bothered him as the main killing diseases are diarrhea and malaria rather than AIDS (as supposed by outside aid). During Troost's involvement with the foreign aid industry, the Chinese arrived on Tarawa and they constructed an embassy and suspicion by the I-Kiribati and I-Matangs. Sylvia and Troost investigate and report Chinese involvement through the FSP while the Chinese build a tracking station for "civilian use." As their suspicions are proved by some evidence, he realizes how life on Tarawa has toughened them both by "immunizing" them to disease, danger, and harsh living conditions. They have adapted and realized that the transition back to "civilization" as they once knew would be harder than they imagined it would be after the job was through. While on Tarawa, Troost traveled to the outer islands which took on the stereotypical view of an island as a "paradise." Although the outer islands are resistant to changes and hold a true "paradise" feel to life, Sylvia and Troost declared south Tarawa, Kiribati, as their home. After the sight of "half-dead-Fred," Troost realized that they needed to leave to avoid turning into the I-Matang turned island crazed man. The transition back to the states was even more difficult than they assumed. Island life had forever changed their outlook on life so they moved to Fiji after failing civilian life back in the states. The birth of their "little island boy" set their lives for a great amount of happiness on Fiji.